LG will build ATSC 3.0 TV functionality into six of its most premium OLED TV models for 2020, said the company Monday at CES in Las Vegas. “Nextgen TV represents the marriage of broadcast and broadband,” Tim Alessi, head-LG home entertainment product marketing, told a news conference. “We expect local stations in more than 60 markets” serving up to 70 percent of the viewing population “to launch some type of Nextgen TV services in 2020,” he said. LG and Samsung were first to announce 3.0 consumer products for the U.S. market. Both were heavily involved in 3.0 standards-setting and worked aggressively to bring 3.0 TVs to South Korean consumers in time for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Samsung will build 3.0 functionality across its 2020 8K QLED TV line, it said Sunday. Samsung will be “excited to see” how 3.0 “steers our broadcast partners into developing content and experiences for our 8K ecosystem,” it said.

More details about broadcasters' and consumer electronics' ATSC 3.0 rollout may come this week at CES. Secrecy beforehand shrouded the breadth and form of the first actual 3.0 consumer receivers to be introduced in Las Vegas for retail delivery later in 2020. An ATSC news release Friday heralded “NEXTGEN TV powered by ATSC 3.0" as a CES 2020 hallmark. The first U.S. consumer receivers with “integrated” 3.0 capabilities “are expected to be announced in the coming days,” said ATSC, a first-time CES exhibitor. The introductions will highlight “the key consumer benefits of enhanced audio and video designed to offer an immersive and effortless experience for the early adopters of the new system,” it said. LG, Samsung and Sony, three of the CE brands most active in the development of 3.0 standards, will appear. ATSC President Madeleine Noland will join CTA President Gary Shapiro and NAB President Gordon Smith in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s Grand Lobby in a ceremony Wednesday “to commemorate the official launch” of 3.0 products at CES, said ATSC. Product introductions will support stations' rollout of 3.0 services in “60-plus U.S. markets this year,” it said.

Dell unveiled products and software including a business laptop that's 5G ready and uses Wi-Fi 6. Also Thursday, it launched Dell Cinema Guide to help customers find streaming entertainment.

“Safety and security at CES are important to us,” emailed CTA Tuesday to our questions about whether the show plans extra security precautions for the keynote appearance of White House adviser Ivanka Trump (see 1912300045). “We do not comment on security plans involving individual speakers,” said CTA.

Z-Wave Alliance opened its specification as a multi-source wireless standard, hoping third-party chip makers and software stack suppliers will grow the ecosystem beyond 100 million devices to 200 million, Johan Pedersen, Silicon Labs smart home product marketing manager told us Thursday. Similar to Zigbee's Wednesday announcement (see 1912180060), Z-Wave said Thursday members will work together on connectivity to help solve interoperability challenges. Zigbee works in the 2.4-GHz range; Z-Wave operates in sub-GHz frequencies. "Our plan is to push out Z-Wave and enable many other companies to participate in it so it’s not a closed system,” he said. Silicon Labs, which bought the Z-Wave business from Sigma Designs for $240 million in April 2018, wants that standard to be the only sub-GHz standard for smart home, said Pedersen. Silicon Labs, which makes Zigbee chips, too, is also part of the Connected Home over IP initiative backed by Amazon, Apple, Google and the Zigbee Alliance, he noted.

Samsung Display leapfrogged BOE in Q3 to reclaim the top position in the global smartphone display market, reported IHS Markit Thursday. Samsung Display took 29 percent share, up year over year from 21.3 percent. Smartphone AMOLED shipments 57 percent sequentially to 146 million units.

The Zigbee Alliance encouraged industrywide participation in a new smart home working group spearheaded by the alliance’s board, along with Amazon, Apple and Google. Absent in Wednesday's announcement was the Z-Wave platform, with 2,400 smart home products on 100 million devices. Project Connected Home over IP “welcomes device manufacturers, silicon providers, and other developers from across the smart home industry to participate in and contribute to the standard,” it said. The Z-Wave Alliance didn’t comment. The WG plans to develop and promote adoption of a new, royalty-free connectivity standard to increase compatibility among smart home products. It highlighted participating Zigbee Alliance board member companies including Ikea, NXP Semiconductors, Samsung SmartThings, Schneider Electric, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) and Silicon Labs as joining the WG. Control4 that's based on the Zigbee protocol wasn’t highlighted. Charlie Kindel, chief product and technology officer of parent SnapAV, emailed us that Control4 remains committed to Zigbee and the alliance. “For the promise of the smart home to be realized, companies big and small will need to deliver a seamless, secure and ever-reliable experience,” said Kindel.

General Motors is bringing SiriusXM’s 360L service to 1 million vehicles on 13 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac models, the companies said Tuesday. A connected access plan and a SiriusXM All Access or SiriusXM Select subscription is required. 360L combines satellite and streaming delivery of 200-plus live SiriusXM channels and on-demand programming. Eligible models have a three-month subscription to SiriusXM All Access, which offers in-vehicle plus app-based listening.

NakiRadio wants an exclusion from the List 4A Section 301 tariffs for the “kosher Wi-Fi device” it imports from China, it posted Sunday in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative public docket 2019-0017. The device streams only “pre-approved” Jewish content and is imported under the same 8517.62.00.90 subheading covering a broad swatch of other tech goods, including smart speakers, Bluetooth headphones, fitness trackers and smartwatches. The device has a 2.1-channel stereo speaker/subwoofer with a three-inch screen “used to navigate an electronic interface,” said the application. NakiRadio tried sourcing the product in the U.S., “but has been unable to find a manufacturer” capable of producing the firmware that “limits the accessible channels,” it said. Finding alternative sourcing would incur “punitive capital investment and serious disruption to its supply chain" because the product is of “a highly specific construction and functionality,” it said. “Kosher Wi-Fi devices with limited channels geared for the Orthodox community are not strategically important” to the Made in China 2025 industrial program, it said. NakiRadio pays 15 percent List 4A duties on the imports. The Trump administration announced plans Friday to roll back List 4A to 7.5 percent in the phase one trade deal with China (see 1912130042).

The Chinese “irreversibly accelerated” their Made in China 2025 industrial program since summer, taking a sharp protectionist turn as the U.S.-China trade war persisted with no negotiated breakthrough, said Photronics CEO Peter Kirlin on a fiscal Q4 call Wednesday. "They ain't turning back." Kirlin's company drew more than half its Q4 revenue from the photomasks it supplied Chinese panel makers, produced at Photronics factories throughout Asia, including in Xiamen and Hefei, China. As the U.S-China trade talks “have gone unresolved,” and U.S. export restrictions remained in place on Huawei (see 1912110039) and other Chinese telecom companies, “the resulting uncertainty has motivated Chinese companies to seek local solutions” for their supply needs, said Kirlin. Their “growing need for photomasks” is a positive “outcome” for Photronics as Chinese tech firms strive to become “more independent and self-sufficient,” he said. The stock closed up 20 percent at $15.13.